All the Shades of Winter
by Saerry Snape
Summary: A story revolving around young Maggie as she grows up after Changes and the various interactions she has with her father, some written as flashbacks, others in the moment. Also included are Harry's interactions with other characters from the series.
1. The Man I Met in the Snow

The first time I met him I was nine.

A year and a few months had passed since the day my entire world had gotten turned upside down; when my parents, the Mendozas, were killed and I was taken by monsters. Vampires I learned later but in that moment and for some time after they were still only monsters.

Well...they're _still_ monsters. Now I just know what _sort_ of monster.

The actual rescue is still mostly a blur to me but I do remember the aftermath, coming to in a church with an old man there. He gave me chicken noodle soup and tea that tasted like honey then told me that he would help find a safe place for me. A place where no monsters could find me anymore.

I was only briefly placed in a temporary home before a short blonde woman came to talk to the couple that kept it. She looked like she had been crying a lot but she managed to keep the tears out of her voice. And she arranged with them – and I assume the church since the Father had placed me here - for her to take me in. That was when I learned her name was Karrin Murphy and she was a former police officer.

We lived in town for a month before I accidentally set the couch on fire. She reacted rather calmly to it, putting out the fire easily with a blanket and calmed me down from my panic attack before she went to call someone. We moved from Illinois to Missouri just like that two weeks later with the only explanation being that we were moving to somewhere where I could learn how to control things like the fire.

That was how I met my teacher, Ebenezar McCoy, who explained to me about magic, taught me the principles of it and how to actually use it. I was actually...happy...in Missouri for a little while. Ebenezar became kind of like a grandfather to me even though he was a little distant at first and Murphy was slowly starting to become something more than the woman I lived with.

Then I found my birth certificate.

When I saw that the Mendozas had _adopted_ me at birth, my heart broke. So I asked Murphy about my real parents, Susan Rodriguez and Harry Dresden, and what had happened to them.

She told me they were both dead.

And I ran out into an oncoming snowstorm blinded by tears with no coat on and no idea what I was thinking. I ran until my body went numb with cold and I collapsed, utterly exhausted, with my tears freezing on my cheeks. When I closed my eyes, I expected never to open them again, to never see Murphy or Ebenezar again. To never get to apologize.

But _he_ found me.

When I came to, I was warm, wrapped up in a thick leather coat and held in someone's lap. A fire roared in front of me and when I flinched back from it, I heard a male voice say from above and behind me, "Shh, shh, you're safe."

Tilting my head back, I caught a glimpse of him above me, his face made of somewhat harsh angles with a bit of a hawkish nose. The smile on his face was warm, however, and it softened his features. I saw dark hair and dark eyes and then realized what he had said and mumbled, "Not supposed to talk to strangers."

"Well," he answered as his smile widened crookedly, "I'm a friend of Murphy's so I'm not really a stranger, am I?"

I remember blinking at him and shifting uneasily. "I guess so," I muttered uneasily. Then I, for some reason, said, "She didn't tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"My real parents. They're dead."

He sucked in a breath, just like a boy at school had when I hit him in the stomach once like Murphy had taught me because he was bullying someone, then said, "She probably had a good reason for not telling you." Before I could say anything he continued kindly, "Sometimes adults do things that you don't understand until later. Believe me, there are some things that happened when I was a kid that I didn't get until I was a lot older than you."

I frowned then sniffed and that broke the floodgates of my tears again. When I started sobbing, he began rocking me gently back and forth with his head bent against mine as he whispered into my hair that it would all be all right. And when my cries finally subsided into hiccuping coughs of sobs, he spoke again.

"I know Murphy isn't your parent by blood," he said softly, gently, and a little sadly. "She's good people though and if you let her in, I know she'll love you like you were her own. And I think you could love her like that too."

There was a pause then he added, "Blood relations are important to remember. But there are also relations of the heart; people who you love like family and blood. So, give Murph a chance when you get back home, yeah? I think she was just trying to protect you."

"Maybe," I mumbled sleepily then, exhaustion washing over me. After that the last thing I remember is him slipping something around my neck before I completely nodded off and whispering something.

When I woke up, I was home in my bed with Murphy sitting next to me, fear and worry heavily evident on her face. She told me I was lucky that she and Ebenezar had found me in the snow and that I had nearly died out there before berating me about running away into it. I was a little confused, wondering if the man had just been a dream, but didn't tell her about him.

I didn't want her to worry if he had been.

Then almost immediately she threw her arms around me and breathed, "I don't know what I would have done if we hadn't found you." His words came back to me then, in that moment, and I knew they were true. And I realized I _wanted_ that connection to Murphy.

She left me alone not long after that, telling me to get some sleep and I rolled over with the intention of doing just that. Something jabbed me in the chest though and I fumbled for it before I grabbed it. As I tried to pull it away, I felt a cord tighten across the back of my neck and remembered the man putting something there.

Here was _proof_ in my hand that he had been real.

But it took me a long time to figure out why he had given me a battered silver pentacle.


	2. Murphy: 'I thought you were dead'

Murphy stared at him as he stood in the doorway with Maggie in his arms, disbelieving that he was really there. She had to be imagining things.

He was _dead_.

"Hi, Murph," he said, his voice quiet, under-toned by sadness and a nervous quiver.

"You..." she began, her voice numb with shock. "You're _dead_."

Harry Dresden gave her a gentle, sad little smile and shrugged his shoulders underneath his leather trench coat. He then shifted the sleeping girl in his arms and said, "I'm not. And neither is Maggie."

Murphy's shock dissolved right then, descending back into burning bright worry for the girl and she bounded forward. Her arms brushed against his as she slipped them under Maggie and she tried not to gasp as she felt the leather against her skin as well as the heat of his arms through it. Pushing that aside, she pulled away and left the room without another word, unable to focus on him until she knew that the girl was safe.

She had fought tooth and nail with Father Forthill to let her take Maggie in so she _could_ do that.

It didn't take long for her to see that Maggie wasn't suffering from any frostbite as she _should_ have been from being outside for that long and suspicion bloomed in her mind. She wanted to go and confront him about it right then but clenched her fists, swallowing her sudden rage. Instead she calmly dressed Maggie for bed and tucked her in, bending down to press a kiss against her dark hair.

Then she closed the door behind her and swept back into the living room of her house, finding Ebenezar there seated in a chair and staring at Harry, who had closed the front door but was leaning against it now. She set her jaw and strode across the floor towards him, making his head jerk up as she approached.

Then her hand whipped through the air and her palm ached as she slapped his cheek.

"You _bastard_," she snarled. "One year. _One year, Harry_. I've thought you were dead for over a year and you were perfectly fine letting me believe that while you were prancing around as the _Winter Knight?_"

He bowed his head, looking at the floor, and she growled before slapping him again. It made her hand ache but the darkening red mark on his cheek made her feel better. No, it just made the rage curled up in her chest swirl around more deeply. It didn't make her feel _better_.

Murphy growled and stepped away from him, running her hands through her hair. Then she shook her head and fixed him with a hard stare that demanded answers.

"The hell are you even _doing_ here?"

Slowly Harry lifted his gaze from the floor and looked at her with obvious pain in his eyes. He then softly said, "I wanted to come back the second I woke up. But...I was compelled against it."

"Compelled by _what_?" she snarled.

"Mab saved my _life_, Murph. I was supposed to die, drowning, from that gunshot. Instead I woke up in Winter owing her _another_ favor _and_ my allegiance." Shaking his head, he continued, "She waited this long to get me as her Knight and she wasn't about to just let me go that easy."

Murphy felt tears try to fill her eyes suddenly but she fought them back. "Why didn't you just leave?" she asked.

His dark eyes hardened then and he snarled, "Because I saw what happened to the last Knight that betrayed her. She made him suffer for _years_ after and I know that she would do the same thing to me if went against her."

Harry took a deep breath and looked around the house before he said, "I'm not even supposed to be here. Not forbidden but me walking around anywhere close to home so soon is dangerous." Then he focused on Murphy, continuing, "But when I heard that Maggie had run out into a snowstorm, I had to come."

Murphy sensed more than saw Ebenezar jerk straighter in his chair and he finally spoke.

"Just how did you hear that, Hoss?"

"I don't think you ever met them, sir, but Murph knows a bit about the Za Lord's Guard."

She blinked at him then whispered, "Toot." Then Murphy gave him a shocked look and said, "You've had faeries watching us?"

Nodding slowly, Harry replied, "Not Toot or any of the first ones he recruited – they never stray too far from me anymore. Some of the extended Guard agreed though and have been watching you since I came to and realized I couldn't come back."

There was silence in the house following that then Murphy asked, "How long?"

"Since two weeks before you took in Maggie. When you moved, Briar followed you and her partner Rednose came to tell me. Same thing tonight." Harry smiled in the direction Murphy had disappeared with Maggie and added, "Briar likes Maggie and bullies Rednose into leaving when one of them has to. I don't think she's actually had Maggie out of her sight since she followed you."

"What happened to the others?" asked Ebenezar.

"Toot?" replied Harry, his smile fading suddenly. He shook his head and answered, "When I woke up, I found out he and the original Guard had been guarding me since I was rescued. Mab finds them amusing, which is rather disturbing in it's own way, and Maeve...well." Shifting against the door, he finished, "Maeve apparently tried to, ah, have her way with me while I was unconscious."

Murphy blinked then asked, "And what happened to that?"

"Reportedly Toot tried to claw out her eyes. He won't tell me what happened except that he defended me against her but obviously _something _did. When I woke up she was sporting a cut across one cheek that was taking an awful long time to go away."

"Iron," said Ebenezar. "And Mab let's them run around with iron in her realm so freely?"

"Like I said, she finds them amusing. Plus they hold their allegiance to me, not Winter." Harry frowned and added thoughtfully, "I'm pretty sure she doesn't think that would make them allied to her but I think she may want others to think that. I've asked Toot about it myself but he assures me that they're all still Wyldfae."

There was silence after that then the older wizard asked in a low voice, "Did you tell her who you were?"

"Did _you_?" snarled Harry, his eyes narrowed. Murphy felt the temperature in the room drop drastically for a brief second, going from warm to freezing in an instant, then it returned to normal. There was a harsh grunt from the Winter Knight then he slumped against the door. "I'm sorry, sir. That was uncalled for."

Ebenezar sighed and looked suddenly all of his years. "I would have told you when I thought it was safe, Hoss."

"Would you?" asked Harry. "Judging by how much shit started to accumulate around me, I don't think we would have _had_ that safe moment." He then sighed and asked, "Are you _going_ to tell her?"

"Harry," interrupted Murphy, "wouldn't her knowing possibly put her in danger again? Maggie's already been kidnapped once because of this."

He shook his head and then looked at both of them with a lost, needy look in his eyes. "She's got no one. No blood relations that she knows of. And I know she's got you, Murph, and you, sir, but...knowing if something different." Harry's hands shook then and he shoved him into his pockets as he continued, "Having someone to care about as an orphan is different than knowing family is there. That helps, stars and stones, that _helps_. But knowing, really, honestly _knowing_, that you have family is something else."

Murphy thought of Thomas then as his words rang through the air and she started, "Harry, Thomas..."

"I know," he said in a soft voice. "He's got a pair watching him as well. I'm well aware that he's still deep in the Court, Murph, but you aren't aware of what he's been doing. He's been slowly cutting his ties and pulling away from Lara so he can come _here_."

"When can we expect him?" asked Ebenezar.

"Not soon; I've had my taste of Court politics and there are some that aren't going to want to let him go. Lara will fight him for a while but eventually I know he'll pull the card saying he was only staying for _me_ and she'll let him go." Harry frowned thoughtfully then said, "Maybe...two years depending on how many ties he's got to cut."

He then jerked his head over his shoulder and sighed heavily. Turning back to them both, he said, "I have to go."

"Mab?" asked Ebenezar.

"Maeve," replied Harry with a growl in his voice. "She's bothering the Guard while we're gone. It's one of her _games_."

"We?" repeated Murphy. She then spotted a flicker of magenta light outside and said, "Toot came with you?"

"Like I said, he doesn't let me out of his sight. And any time I tell him I'll be fine, he reminds me what happened to Reuel." Running a hand back through his hair, he looked at them both before saying, "I can't promise I'll be back but if you ever need me, I'll be there."

"And always watching," said Ebenezar airily.

Harry shrugged, smiling slightly. "It's the least I can do since I can't actually be here."

The older wizard grunted and rose from his chair, smiling across the room at his grandson. Then he nodded to him and said, "I think I'll go check on Maggie," and swept out of the room.

Leaving Murphy and Harry alone.

They stared at each other for a long moment, the silence between them drawn as tense as a wire tightened to the breaking point. Then she moved slowly towards him and, without saying a word, wrapped her arms around him to hug him tightly. For a moment Harry stiffened then he let out a low grunt and returned her embrace.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "That I wasn't..."

"Harry," she growled in a low voice, pressing her face against his chest.

"Murph?"

"No apologies."

"Okay."

They stood like that for a long moment, just soaking in each others presences for the first time in a year, until he breathed, "I have to go." One hand fumbled for her chin then, lifting his face towards his, and he continued, "I'm sorry I couldn't be there. After."

"You got shot," she said quietly. Then she added, "I'm still angry at you."

"I know."

Murphy shook her head slightly before saying, "I can understand why you stayed away though." Abruptly she lifted a hand to her eyes and wiped away tears. "God, I thought I was better than this."

Harry smiled down at her at that then jerked his head around to look over his shoulder, eyes narrowed. He felt her push away from him then, heard her say, "You should go," and he was moving before he knew it. And he _knew_ in his heart it was the bad idea of bad ideas but damnit he wanted to do it just _once_ if this was going to be his only chance.

Pulling her back against him, he bent and caught Murphy's lips with his own. Her hands pressed against his shoulders, fingers tightening against the leather, and he thought for a moment she was going to break his arms. Then the pressure lessened and she sank into his arms with a contented little sigh against his lips.

When they separated, he said softly, "I wanted to do that just once."

"Pig," she hissed but there was no anger in it. Her eyes were sad as she reached up to touch his cheek and said, "You should go take care of Maeve. Save your Guard."

The words '_I want to stay __**here**_' wanted to pass his lips but Harry closed his teeth over them and nodded. Much as he wanted to stay, he was technically dead and that would make everything impossible. And he would bring too much danger to them all – which was what he wanted to avoid at all costs.

It was safer for him to stay in Winter.

"I'll be watching," he said, sliding his hand over hers on his cheek. Their fingers entwined for one brief moment then they both stepped away from each other. Murphy gave him a smile that was forced and he returned it in equal before he opened the door behind him. Harry met her eyes briefly then he was outside in the snow again with Toot fluttering over him with a contained anger.

He strode away from the house, looking back at it over his shoulder once, then said, "We're going," and tore the way into the NeverNever he had come through. Behind him in the house, Murphy watched him go with one hand covering her mouth, choking down several sobs.

It took her a few minutes to get herself back under control, wiping the tears from her eyes. She stared out at the snow for a long time after that, arms wrapped around herself, then she turned and headed to Maggie's room. Ebenezar rose as she entered and they both stood in the doorway watching the girl sleep until he spoke quietly.

"He's still the same man he was."

"I know," she answered. Sighing, she asked, "What are we going to tell her?"

Ebenezar frowned for a moment in thought then said, "Tell her that we found her. It's too soon to tell her the truth."

Murphy nodded and he started to turn to leave when she called softly over her shoulder, "We will tell her everything eventually."

The old wizard turned but she kept her eyes on Maggie so he was facing her back. It took him a moment to realize it had not been a question but a statement of fact and he was silent for a long moment, staring at his great-granddaughter's sleeping form around her before he quietly agreed, "We will."


	3. The Man Who Saved Me From the Council

A bead of sweat rolled over my forehead into my eye and as I frantically blinked it away, I wondered how many others had worn this hood. It smelt like sweat and blood – like _fear_ – and while I tried to think positive and work my way through the problem like Mom always said, I couldn't figure out how to get out of this.

According to Council Law, I deserved this. The hood. The trial. The (possibly) inevitable death.

And all of it, _all of it_, for killing a sorcerer who was coming after _me_ and _Mom_ to get at Granddad. Was I supposed to have let him finish his spell, let him kill us? Granddad – sorry, _Ebenezar_ – had been off on Blackstaff business so he was unreachable. Uncle Thomas had been back in Chicago helping his sister deal with some White Court politics.

Who was I supposed to turn to?

He'd had a shield; I watched Mom empty a whole clip into it and do nothing. Then she went flying, he was laughing, and I was so damn _angry_ and _scared_. It was suddenly the Temple again with the worst monster of them all in front of me...but this time _I_ could hurt _him_.

I remember fire after that. Fire and throwing myself over Mom with only the thought of protecting her because I had magic and I _could_.

After that I remember being dragged upright by two Wardens right before someone snarled my sentence and the bag went over my head. Mom was screaming, I remember that too. And I -

The door opened behind me and sound suddenly flooded the room I'd been tossed into with my hood and my hands tied. Not that I couldn't have slipped the knot if I'd wanted to. Mom told me once that my dad had been named after Harry Houdini and I spent days after looking him up. I've practiced most of the simpler stuff enough now that I can do it in my sleep.

The whole water tank thing is way out of my league though.

"Margaret Angelica Murphy," stated the same voice that had declared my sentence. They had to practically shout to be heard over all of the raised voices from the room beyond and I perked up as I heard one I recognized.

"_Granddad_," I mouthed underneath the hood, feeling a surge of elation. Then hands grabbed me on either side and hauled me upright before dragging me bodily from the room so harshly that I couldn't keep up. My battered sneakers made squeaking noises across the floor and I could hear the voices growing louder as they moved me.

"Hey," I found myself saying despite a mouth that felt full of cotton balls, "you guys do know that your accommodations suck, right?"

That got no response from any of the at least three that I figured were around me and I suddenly recalled Carlos' insistence that very few Wardens had a sense of humor. I'd always thought he'd been exaggerating but he was the only Warden I had met previously so I didn't have a basis to draw from. His words looked to be proving themselves true now though.

Not long after I spoke, we went through a set of doors and were suddenly _there_ amongst the storm of voices that were shouting at the top of their lungs. I heard Granddad – _Ebenezar_, shit – above everyone else but I couldn't make out anything being said through the hood. Then I heard the Merlin shouting back at him just before I was practically dumped into a chair and silence fell in the room.

"Margaret Angelica Murphy," stated the Merlin in _almost_ the right tone. Mom _always_ hits it right though she's only ever used it when I'm in big trouble. "You have broken one of our Laws and killed another with the use of magic."

I shook my head at that and tried to stand but was shoved back into the chair even as I shouted, "He was trying to kill us!"

"You're going to kill a child for mere self-defense?" Granddad asked in that cold, steely tone that I hate. Mom calls it his 'Blackstaff Voice' since he never uses it unless he's acting as that – or if he's really pissed off.

Now would be the latter time, of course. Granddad may be capable of large amounts of badassery – there's this one story about him pulling a satellite out of orbit onto Reds, which is just awesome – but the Merlin is something else. As Mom is wont to say: 'There's a reason he's the leader of the Council and it's not because of his people skills.'

"And," continued Granddad "I believe we should hear what she has to say since, by all accounts, the Wardens sent to actually apprehend the sorcerer arrived _after_ all was done."

"The Wardens reported that - "

"They reported that they found my apprentice lying _unconscious_ over her mother with her magic practically _drained_ from the effort of holding a shield against the fire that killed the sorcerer. Whatever they have to say has no bearing on what actually happened since they were not there to witness it."

There was a long pause then the Merlin stated, "We have never had need to hear what any who broke the Laws said before now. Why _this_ girl, McCoy?"

I lifted my head as it seemed Granddad was about to speak then heard a gunshot from somewhere to my left. Twisting in the chair as I heard a shout, my heart welled in my throat as I recognized the voice and any courage I'd gathered snuffed out as fear took over. I screamed, "_MOM!_" and earned a hard cuff to the back of my head just as a pair of doors slammed open.

"Let my daughter go," was Mom's opening line. Her voice wasn't loud but even I could hear it through the muffling of the hood. There was something in the tone that demanded being obeyed with the threat of '_or else I shoot you'_ dangling behind it.

I started fumbling for the bindings on my wrists now, fully intending to slip them and run, but then there was a shriek from behind me. As a hand landed on my shoulder, I froze but it wasn't the harsh grip of one of the Wardens as I'd feared. And when they leaned down and spoke in my ear, I recognized the voice. It was _him._

"Don't worry," said the man I'd met in the snow six years before. "You're going to be heading home safe and sound in a few minutes with your Mom and Uncle."

I wanted to say something but he stepped away from me and the whole room suddenly went _cold_. A chill was suddenly close to my skin a few seconds later then I realized that I still wore the pentacle he'd given me and it was as cold as the room.

"_You_," growled the Merlin, shock and anger flavoring his voice.

"_Me_," answered the man in a voice that rang with the same cold steel as Granddad's. "Let the girl go, Merlin. You can't fault the child for defending her mother against someone trying to kill them both."

"We can't be sure of that."

The man snorted then snapped, "Briar!" I felt a brief flicker of warmth suddenly rush past me then a tiny voice spoke up.

"The Za Lord wishes me to speak?" asked a female voice amidst gasps. Even with the hood on, I heard a few loud whispers about Faerie and the Winter Knight which recalled Granddad's teaching me about Summer and Winter. Plus Mom throwing in a few words of wisdom about how to deal with them from her own experience.

"You saw what happened," answered the man, his tone softening slightly. Then it hardened again as he added, "Tell the Merlin what you saw."

"And what," hissed the Merlin, "makes you think I am to believe a faerie? What business does Winter have with this girl as well?"

"_Winter_," came the crisp, snapped response, "has _no_ business here."

For a moment there was silence then a gasp before the Merlin breathed out an exclamation of surprise I couldn't quite hear. I _did_ hear Mom's protective growl from somewhere behind me and Uncle Thomas hissing, "Get out of my way or you're going to lose an arm."

"Briar," snapped the man then. "I think the Merlin is ready to listen."

The faerie coughed then began to speak, laying out how Mom and I had been outside before everything went to Hell. She described things oddly – like my math homework as "wiggly things" - but she hit the description of the sorcerer so dead on I started to shake. It got worse as she kept going and if my reserves hadn't still been spent, I would probably have called up another firestorm right then and there because of the terror flooding through me anew.

Against my chest the frosty touch of the pentacle suddenly stopped and became the only warm spot in the room. I focused on that warmth, using it as an anchor like Mom had taught me to find when I was scared, and pulled myself back. By the time I did, she was fumbling at the ropes around my wrists despite one of the Wardens growling protests behind me and pulling the hood off.

The other Warden who'd been guarding me was the one Uncle Thomas had threatened. While he wasn't _missing_ an arm, it had been twisted in a way it wasn't supposed to be and he was on the floor whimpering in pain. I felt bad he'd been hurt but he was no Carlos.

"Are you okay?" asked Mom as she brushed back my hair. Her hands were chilled and her breath steamed against my face but they were the most welcome touches I felt since I'd been rescued from the Temple.

I nodded slightly in response then I was in her arms, held tight – _safe_ – and I breathed, "I'm okay, Mom. I'm _okay_."

"I'm not believing that until I hear it from _him_." Mom looked past me then and I didn't have to turn to know she was looking at the Merlin. "You tell me truthfully: _is_ my daughter safe? And don't give me the bullshit runaround."

There was a long silence after that and as it stretched out the air seemed to grow even colder, to the point where _frost_ began to form on things and I heard Granddad growl warningly, "_Hoss_," in a quiet voice.

"You know I've never been patient," answered the man in a grim tone and I filed the nickname away.

Granddad snorted at that then the Merlin said, "In accordance with this...faerie's...statement, it seems this trial is over. Margaret Angelica Murphy -" I shuddered in Mom's arms as he almost hit _the _tone again. "- you are free to go."

"Good," hissed Mom and, before I knew what was going on, she had picked up every gangly inch of me, carrying me like I was nine again. I looked over her shoulder and around Uncle Thomas as he followed us, my eyes on the man and the tiny, green-haired faerie perched on the palm of his hand. Before we went through a pair of doors, he turned his head and our eyes met for one brief, fleeting second as he smiled.

The pentacle around my neck flashed cold again, like an acknowledgment, and I freed one hand to grasp the battered little emblem of magic as it faded away. It was good to know that he _was_ real and not some figment of my imagination that I'd come up with lost in the snow six years ago.

What the pentacle meant and why the Winter Knight himself was protecting me was still a mystery back then though.


	4. Thomas: 'You bastard'

**Author's Note:** Apologies for the delay on getting this part up. I've been sitting on it for a good while, iffy on whether or not I was happy with it, and finally decided I was. Also, as in obvious in this chapter, this story doesn't follow _Ghost Story_, just _Changes_. Anything similar comes from my own assumptions as to what might follow after _Changes._

* * *

Thomas had been ignoring the polite knocking on his apartment door for ten minutes now. He was no longer reading his book even though he was still holding it and was simply staring at the pages, the words blurred from tears of rage.

Oh, he knew full well _who_ was at his door.

"Thomas," came his brother's voice suddenly from the outside and he nearly leapt to his feet right then. He held himself back, closing his eyes as he recalled the last seven painfully long years. "Thomas, open the door. _Please."_

If anything it was the 'please' that got him and he laid his book aside as he rose to his feet. Then Thomas strode across his apartment to the door, threw it open, and pulled his much taller brother into a tight hug. There was a grunt of surprise then leather clad arms tentatively folded around him and Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

Moment over, Thomas swiftly pulled away and snapped a right hook across his little brother's jaw in one blinding strike that had all of his rage and torment behind it.

"You _bastard_," he snarled, "you've been _alive_ this whole time and you never once contacted me? Never let me know you weren't _dead_?"

Reaching out, he grasped the lapels of the leather coat and shook the taller man.

"I ought to beat you senseless for being so damn _stupid_ and _empty headed_."

Harry bowed his head at that and quietly said, "I wouldn't stop you."

Thomas scowled, worked his jaw for a moment as he searched for the angry words to continue, then he threw up his hands in disgust as he let go of the coat when he couldn't find them. "Come inside," he growled as he turned back into his apartment. As soon as he heard the door close, he spun back around with his teeth bared and slammed his brother into the reinforced door. Harry let out a grunt but he didn't make any move to retaliate or defend himself, instead letting his arms hang at his sides and his head still bowed.

"_Winter Knight?_ You've been working as the Winter Knight for seven years and you couldn't be bothered to tell any of us?"

"Murphy knew," Harry breathed. "And Ebenezar."

That made Thomas growl then he closed his eyes and asked, "When?"

"When Maggie got lost in that snowstorm."

"You can't tell me that being a part of Winter gives you the ability to know someone's lost in a snowstorm_."_

Harry shook his head slowly, still not lifting his gaze to meet Thomas', and answered, "I've had members of the Guard keeping an eye on all of you. Since two weeks before Murph got Maggie."

That made Thomas arch his eyebrows then he frowned and reached up to grab his little brother's chin. Lifting Harry's head, he caught his eyes with his and stared, stormy gray into dark brown, and when a soulgaze wasn't initiated he nodded to himself before backing off. As he retreated back to his couch, he heard the other man push away from the door.

"Explain," demanded Thomas as he gave a curt little gesture of one hand towards a chair.

"Everything?" asked Harry as he took the invitation, stretching his long legs out as he settled down.

"_Everything._"

His little brother explained all right. He explained perhaps _too much_.

How he'd woken up back in Winter with Toot-Toot and several other of his WyldFae allies standing guard over him. His various 'welcome back's from Mab, Maeve, and Leanansidhe. Maggie's rescue from dying of frostbite six years previous. What he'd done since then at the orders of his Queen.

Some of the things Thomas hadn't wanted to know.

As Harry finished, he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. Then he stared levelly at his brother and asked, "Were you dead?"

Dark eyes widened slightly then darted away as Harry nodded slowly. Thomas cursed, closing his eyes in agony, then snarled out his next question.

"Then _how_, by empty night, are you still her Knight?"

"Close to dead is more accurate," answered his brother in a voice that was suddenly as cold and dead as winter itself, "which isn't dead enough to lose the mantle. Besides Summer broke the rules given that Fix was ordered to shoot me in the first place."

Thomas blinked and Harry smiled bitterly.

"They were trying to take me out of the picture, afraid of what might happen with me as Knight. Turns out they gave the Queen exactly what she wanted and that was me with _nothing_ to go back to with me being dead." He gave a casual shrug as he continued, "I apparently got fished out of Lake Michigan by Lea and spent the better part of the next few weeks being pieced back together by the Queen."

"Why?" asked Thomas, confused as to why a Faerie Queen would be so hard pressed to have his little brother that she saved him from dying. He knew full well that Fae didn't care for mortals.

"She waited a long time to get me and she wasn't about to just let me go. Particularly not when Summer gave her that opening." Harry shook his head and chuckled darkly, a sound that made shivers run up Thomas' spine. "Things are not quite what they were when Slate killed Reuel but the tension's pretty close. There won't be war, not yet anyway, but the possibility is getting higher and higher and I can only do so much."

He heard the unspoken '_Mab only **let's** me_' that should have replaced 'I can only' and nodded his head slowly. Or at least would have if his brother was _saying_ the name of his Queen – though it was understandable why he wasn't since something that powerful paid attention when its name was spoken. Then Thomas asked, "What do you owe her?"

A strangled laugh erupted from Harry at that. Then he answered, coldly, bitterly, "_Everything_." He lifted his hands, unbuttoning the top buttons of his shirt and pulling one side away for Thomas to see.

On the left side of Harry's chest was the blackened remnant of what had been the bullet wound meant to kill him. It looked painful and frostbitten with an aura of angry red radiating out from it but that wasn't what had Thomas' heart beating fast and his breath hitching in an unreleased sob. Radiating outward from that terrible wound was a snowflake seared into the skin in the same dark, frostbitten lines only without the irritated redness. The mark covered most of his chest and he now realized that part of it was trailing up over his shoulder and onto his neck.

"How -"

"Glamour," answered Harry before he put his shirt back together. He didn't bring the glamour he'd walked in with back up though and Thomas found he couldn't tear his eyes from the dark lines of the mark showing on his neck. There was a snort from his brother and then, "Trust me it was a lot bigger when I woke up. All I was told was that it took a lot of power to bring me back and that I had agreed to them doing it this way as it was the one that didn't involve killing innocent people."

As his brother's eyes widened, Harry nodded. He laughed bitterly and nodded before saying, "I don't remember doing it but the Sidhe have never been picky about the details surrounding the deals they make. So it shouldn't really be that surprising that they'd take the acceptance of a dying man when they really shouldn't have listened to him."

Thomas snorted then sighed heavily before he stated, "So they know about Maggie."

"The only one I'm worried about is Maeve. The Queen agreed that she wouldn't order me to hurt my family but Maeve...she's been trying my patience since before I regained consciousness." At his brother's confused look, Harry explained, "She tried to have her way with me while I was still crossing the brink. Toot didn't take kindly to her 'offer' and gave her a scar to remember him by though he still won't tell me exactly what happened. I do think though that she knows better than to try going after Maggie but I could be wrong."

After nodding slowly and taking stock that Harry obviously didn't care if Maeve was alerted that he was talking about her, Thomas then said sadly, "So you're stuck."

"I'm stuck," confirmed Harry with a slight nod. "There might – and I stress the _might_ – be a way for me to break loose of the mantle but while I've got _this_ there's no way." He gestured at his neck where the snowflake showed as he continued, "I lose the mantle, I die. Winter magic won't work to heal someone that isn't Winter."

Thomas started to open his mouth to ask how long then realized he didn't _want_ to know. Given how long his brother's lifespan could be if he survived that long... No. He really didn't want to know.

"So...Maggie?"

"Stays with Murph," answered Harry firmly. "She knows _what_ I am now but not _who_. That's a revelation I'm not ready to share yet 'cause once she finds out more people find out."

Thomas nodded slowly then asked, "I thought you wanted her hidden, that you didn't want her involved in this mess."

Harry scowled before he answered. "I _did_. Her setting Murph's couch on fire tossed that one out the window and as soon as she was Ebenezar's apprentice he had to make her known to the Council. No one there knows her as anyone but Margaret Murphy except for the Merlin now after what happened."

"They'll know soon enough," said Thomas, watching his little brother's scowl deepen. "She might have Susan's coloring but she's definitely _yours_, Harry."

"I know. She's getting into that gangly stage I was in when I was a teenager."

Silence fell between them then before Thomas asked, "What happens when someone realizes who she is and comes after her?"

"She'll have her mom, uncle, and great-grandfather to protect her." Then Harry's teeth flashed in a smile that was all feral and reminded Thomas far too much of his brother's godmother for comfort. "And if anything gets past the three of you, I'll make sure it doesn't get the chance to correct its stupid idea to attack _my_ little girl."

He just stared for a moment then leaned forward to grab his brother's hand.

"You're scaring me a little, Harry."

Harry shrugged but he squeezed Thomas's fingers reassuringly as he said, "Things are tough in Winter." He then cocked his head to the side as if listening to something before adding, "Speaking of..."

"Mab?"

"War meeting. That was my reminder from Lea that I'm supposed to be there."

They both rose then and this time Harry pulled Thomas into a hug, clutching him tightly but briefly before letting go. "Take care of them," he said quietly.

"I will," promised Thomas. Then his eyes went to the snowflake mark began, "Does..."

"Murph know? No. I'd rather she didn't know just how deep of shit I'm in either."

"She's going to kick your ass when she finds out."

"Well by then I hope to no longer have the mantle so the point will be moot." Harry then smiled and said, "I've missed you."

Thomas felt tears in his eyes again, though this time they weren't ones of anger, and he nodded before growling, "Get going before your boss sends someone looking for you."

That made Harry laugh and he nodded before he turned and left, waving with a sad smile before the door closed behind him. As soon as he was gone, Thomas sank back down onto his couch and covered his face with his hands as a strangled sob tore out of his throat.

His brother was _alive._

That was the only thought that kept racing through Thomas' head and he lifted his hand to touch the pentacle hanging at his throat. He thought of Maggie and the familiar battered pentacle that hung around her neck, that he'd thought Karrin had given to her but now knew that Harry had. And he slowly got control of himself again.

Knowing Harry was alive shouldn't have changed anything about how he felt about protecting Maggie and helping Karrin. But Thomas had been practically dead himself after he'd been informed of his brother's death.

Now he felt alive again and ready to take on whatever the hell came to dare try and touch his niece.


	5. The Man Who Was My Father

"Well, well, aren't you a pretty little thing," said a voice from behind me. Startled, I nearly dropped the gun I'd been about to fire and whirled to face the speaker. She looked maybe about the same age as me with dread-locked hair dyed in shades of pale blue, green, and purple and wore a pair of cut-off shorts in a frosty blue with a white shirt cut off just below her breasts and sandals.

This wouldn't have been that odd if we weren't in Missouri in December. That and she just felt…wrong.

I turned to face her warily, keeping the gun pointed towards the ground but ready to bring it up if I needed to, and said firmly, "Whatever you're selling, I don't want it."

That made her laugh merrily and she moved forward in a slow, sinuous stride that I couldn't help but watch. Not that it bothered me given that my first relationship was a girlfriend instead of a boyfriend – though Granddad took a bit to get used to me being bisexual. What bothered me was the fact that her getting closer was setting all of my senses on fire and there's nothing human about that.

Since she didn't give off the vibe that Uncle did…

"You're Sidhe," I stated matter-of-factly and she smiled.

"And smart too," she commented, continuing on from her previous statement. She slid a step closer and reached out a hand to touch my face but I quickly side-stepped, moving away. After being kidnapped twice I really _don't_ like being touched by people I don't know. "Alright then, no touching. I just wanted to finally see what all the fuss was about."

I frowned at that and she cocked her head to the side before laughing again.

"Oh, you don't _know_, do you? Well this is just _delicious_." Tilted her head back, she smiled broadly at me as she hooked her thumbs into her belt as she asked, "What would you say if I could tell you where your father is?"

Alarm bells went off in my head but the rest of me wasn't listening. My hands started to shake and I gripped the gun tightly as the words, "My parents are dead," fell from my lips.

"Your mother, yes, but your father…oh, no, sweet thing, he's still alive. I could even take you to him."

A tiny, trembling part of me that I usually kept buried wanted to scream _Yes, yes, take me!_ but logic swiftly overruled it. Mom and Granddad had told me plenty about what creatures and beings I should avoid and the Sidhe were around the top of the list. Well, to be more accurate Granddad's advice was to avoid them. Mom said I had permission to set them on fire and run like hell.

Shaking my head, I moved another step back. "I'm not making any deal with a Sidhe," I said as firmly as I could manage. "And I'm sure as hell not going anywhere with one."

Her cheerful facade snapped off quick then and I brought the gun up as she bared her teeth, eyes glinting with rage and power.

"You're too stupid for your own good," she growled, moving close to me with those same sinuous strides that were now more predator than sultry vixen. "Just like _him_."

I thumbed back the revolver's hammer even though I knew it wouldn't do anything against her as the bullets wouldn't have enough iron to slow her. No matter what, I wasn't going anywhere without a fight. So I aimed, focused on the links of the chain around my wrist that would bring up a shield that she'd probably tear right through, and silently regretted not seeing Mom since she'd been working a double shift or Granddad as he was on Council business.

Then there was the distinctive sound of a hole being torn in reality from behind me and a magenta glow blurred past me with a trail of various other colors behind it. I blinked as the Sidhe let out a hiss and leapt backwards as a group of tinny voices screamed, "Fuck off, frost bitch!"

"I'm rather proud of that one," said a voice I knew and I whirled to see the man who saved me twice before – older, certainly, with grey in his hair but _him_ – standing there in front of the tear that ran into the NeverNever. He then held out his hand and continued, "You should probably come with me. It's not safe here."

"My mom...Ebenezar..."

"They've already been alerted to what's going on," he assured, his voice gentle but I could hear tremblings of rage and fear underneath it. "I'll explain everything later but we have to go now before Maeve circles back. Even WyldFae with iron won't fend her off for long when she's in a mood."

The name rang alarm bells and I gasped, "The...the Winter Lady?" Then I remembered what had been said when he'd charged into that Council meeting meant to sentence me to death. "But...you're..."

He shrugged at that and smiled slightly. "It's complicated. Now, please, Maggie, I need you to trust me one more time."

I stared then nodded, reaching out to take his hand just as a green blur came to a stop and resolved into the dewdrop fairy I'd seen at that meeting. "She is on her way back!" she exclaimed as she flicked blood off of the tip of her 'sword' – a sharpened sewing needle.

The man's fingers closed over mine then and he said, "Get back to Toot and tell him to break off, Briar. We'll meet back at home after."

"For pizza?" she asked in a voice that was disturbingly hopeful amidst the situation.

"For pizza," he assured and she was gone. Then he smiled at me and asked, "You ever traveled through the NeverNever?"

"Once," I answered as I fumbled the revolver into a pocket of my coat since Mom would kill me if I went into seriously bad territory without something besides magic. "Granddad took me to my first Council meeting that way."

I didn't even realize what I'd said until I heard his hitch of breath then he was pulling me into the tear in reality as a primal scream of rage filled the air. Animal fear jolted me into action and when we came out on the other side we were both running through what appeared to be a gorgeous springtime field. I knew it was so much more than that though.

"Hold on," growled the man and he lifted his free hand, eyes narrowing as he focused on something. My own widened as I felt the surge of power that came from him then I nearly hit the ground at what was coming up from behind us. Then another tear opened in front of us and as soon as we were through he spun and slashed his hand downward across it in a move that closed it up like a zipper.

We pulled away from each other then, each sagging against the opposite wall of the tunnel we were in, and I managed to gasp, "What. The hell. Is. Going on?"

"You turned eighteen two days ago," he said and I stared at him wondering how he knew that. His eyes met mine for a bare second then jerked away to focus on my forehead. I'd practiced long and hard at Mom's suggestion to be good at looking at people's faces without getting caught in a soul gaze so I knew what he was doing. "So there's been a sort of betting pool in Winter over who'd manage to ensnare you now that you're officially free game. One in Summer as well from what I've heard."

"Free game?" I repeated. "What does _that_ mean? And why would both Courts be in a bet over _me_? I'm just -"

Suddenly Maeve's words came back to me: ..._your father…oh, no, sweet thing, he's still alive. I could even take you to him_. I looked at him then, really _looked_, and I felt like my whole being was about to tear itself apart as it warred between happiness and sheer rage.

Mom had always told me that Uncle Thomas was the closest I would get to seeing my dad given that no pictures of him had survived what had killed him and my mom. So I'd spent a lot of time studying my uncle as he watched with a sad sort of amusement as if he could see the thoughts ticking through my head as I tried to figure out what features he shared with my dad. I knew his face better than I knew my own.

So, looking at the man who'd saved me from a snowstorm and the White Council, I could see the connections. They bridged themselves lightning fast and for a moment I couldn't breathe, I couldn't _think_ beyond the frantic pounding of my heart and suddenly panting breaths.

"You..._you're_..."

He just stood there, watching me with those sad dark eyes, then finished what I was trying to say in a broken voice that would have torn through me if not for the rage I was feeling right then.

"Harry Dresden," he said softly. "Your father."

The acknowledgment hit me like a ton of bricks and I felt my knees tremble before they went out from under me. His hands were almost instantly at my elbows, holding me up, and I want to slap him away, wanted to twist out of his grip...but I didn't. Instead our eyes met for a brief moment again and my father breathed, "We're still not quite out of the woods yet, Maggie. I've got a safe place, somewhere that only the Queen dares to tread on but we've got to get there. I promise I'll explain everything then."

"Everything?" I questioned, no, _demanded_, and he smiled. When he brushed hair behind my ear I managed to not jerk away as he answered.

"Everything. I promise."

Part of me wanted to demand an answer to the most important question I wanted to ask right then but I'd felt the wild power that had followed us through the first tear he'd opened. He'd saved my life twice already and there weren't many beings that could hold the allegiance of that many Wyldfae in an honest manner. Plus Mom hadn't been surprised when he'd shown up during their rescue of me from the Council.

If anything, that last bit made me trust what he was telling me the most.

"Okay," I said, "but I don't make any promises not to yell at you."

He laughed at that, eyes crinkling at the corners, as he helped me straighten up. Once I was steady on my feet – and both of us were over the slight shock of being only a few inches from standing eye-to-eye – he said, "Kid, with Murph having raised you I wouldn't expect anything less."

At that point he released me and held one hand up between us – an invitation to come with him even though I already agreed. I took it without even thinking and felt that shiver of his magic against mine that I had been too distracted to notice earlier. Part of it was all too foreign…but the rest felt like Granddad's magic did.

Empty night, I really was with my _dad_.

He grinned down at me like an over exuberant kid and said, "Hold on to your head, kiddo, you're in for a bumpy ride." Then he opened another tear in reality and I followed him through it, ready to find out the truth about my father.


	6. Ebenezar: 'I've got to pick my fights'

When the Way opened behind them, every Warden with Ebenezar was at the ready. No one but Captain Luccio should have known where they were going so whatever was coming through had to be nasty.

Which it was. Just not the sort of nasty that was actually against them.

"Ease off," ordered Ebenezar without tearing his eyes from his grandson. There was gray in the dark hair that he didn't remember seeing the last time they'd seen each other – during Maggie's near death – but the eyes were the same. Dark, determined, and right now terrified beyond comprehension.

"That's the Winter Knight, isn't it?" asked one of the Wardens who was too young to really remember Harry. The rest were old enough and one growled his name under his breath as well as a not too polite curse.

With a nod, Ebenezar said sternly, "Conall, take charge while I deal with this. Don't engage until I meet back up with you. Understood?"

Several wary half-mumbled acknowledgments answered him and then the Wardens were moving away. It wasn't until the last edge of their gray cloaks had disappeared that he moved towards his grandson and asked, "What's wrong, Hoss?" He knew all too well that Harry somehow kept apprised of things in the Council and wouldn't come looking for him if he knew what mission was in place.

Harry's jaw tensed as he growled, "Maggie's in trouble."

"How?" demanded Ebenezar, mission going completely out of mind. He'd ignored family once and that had ended up costing him his grandson. He wasn't about to make the same mistake with his great-granddaughter if she was in immediate danger.

"I'm not sure yet but both Courts are jumping because she turns eighteen tomorrow." Dark eyes flared with rage as Harry clenched his hands. "The Queen's dropping her no-touch policy on Maggie as soon as it happens."

That made Ebenezar's eyebrows rise. He knew that his grandson had managed to convince the Winter Queen to never try to turn him against his own family but he hadn't known _that_.

"Which makes her free game for any Fae that wants to try and get a hold over you."

Harry nodded sharply and Ebenezar gestured at the jungle around them sadly before he continued, "I can't exactly do anything about it until I'm done here, Hoss. They might not come after her right away." It _hurt_ to have to say it but he had to. He couldn't just drop anything, not without confirmation of something actually being after Maggie. No matter how much he wanted to, reality was that he was Senior Council and Blackstaff.

He couldn't just run away from that.

The temperature abruptly started dropping around them then, frost forming on surfaces that it had never touched before, and he said sharply, "You knew that would be how it was when you came here, Hoss."

"I know," growled Harry, "but I was hoping maybe for once that family would trump the Council. Guess that was too much to ask though."

"Harry…"

"Hell's bells, Ebenezar, this is your _granddaughter_ we're talking about!"

"You think I don't know that, son?" he snapped, glaring at his grandson. "I can't protect her from the Council if I disappear to shield her from something else. There are none too few that are starting to ask questions about who she is and they don't like the answers they're coming up with." Sighing heavily, Ebenezar closed his eyes briefly then opened them to look hard at the younger man. "I've got to pick my fights, Hoss, and this one might be the harder in the end. The Fae, at least, might leave her alive."

A snarl that was more animal than human came from Harry then he spat, "I know."

Ebenezar eyed him for a moment then asked, "Can you protect her?"

Dark eyes full of fierce determination and a near killing rage met his. "You know I will," his grandson growled. "Winter or Summer, no Fae touches my little girl. But you, sir, need to get this thing done quick." Harry took a deep breath then and finished, "Maeve's the one I'm worried about most. I can take her on if I have to pull a distraction but that'd leave Maggie open to one of the others."

"I'll be there, Hoss, soon as I can."

"Good. I'll leave you to it then."

As Harry turned away, Ebenezar said, "Tell Karrin," even though he knew he didn't have to.

The Winter Knight flashed a grin over his shoulder, saying, "I told her _first_, sir," then he opened the Way and was gone. Ebenezar leaned on his staff and stared at the empty air before he looked around at the frost that was now melting off the plants and trees.

Then he turned and moved to meet up with the Wardens he'd been given for this mission, determined to settle it as swiftly as he could without cutting corners (too many, at least). He wasn't going to fail his grandson again or his great-granddaughter for the first time. Not with this.


	7. The Man Who Told Me the Truth

"Where are we?" I asked as we stepped out onto land that felt…wrong. I couldn't describe exactly how it was wrong, just that it was.

"Island in Lake Michigan. I call it Demonreach."

I wrinkled my nose at the name then asked, "And what exactly are we doing on an island with such a _nice_ name? Or back around Chicago to be even more specific?" Then I realized that my hand was still in his and pulled away, abruptly uncomfortable with the contact. He let me but I could see the hurt in his eyes.

Part of me wanted to apologize but the rest hardened itself with a reminder that he'd only ever been there for me twice.

He sighed then answered, "This is home. Given that I'm officially dead, it'd be really hard for me to get an apartment." I got the sense that there was something more to that given that he'd said he had a safe place where only the Winter Queen would tread but let it go. There were more important things to ask about.

"C'mon," he continued and pointed at a small hut that sat on top of the hill in front of us. "We can talk in there." Then he smiled and bowed slightly as he gestured at it again as he said, "Ladies first."

I snorted at that and eyed him in disbelief for a moment as the number of men I'd met who even knew that phrase could be counted on one hand. One glance at his eyes showed that he honestly meant it and I shrugged before starting to move. It didn't take long for us to make it up the hill and he briefly stepped around me to release a ward on the door. Then he opened it for me with an overly flamboyant bow.

Mom had said once that he was a chauvinist pig. I could see why.

There wasn't much room inside the hut. I could only see one door that looked to lead to a tiny bathroom and everything else was crammed in the tiny space. A silver ring was set into a clear space amongst the rugs that covered the concrete floor, so much like the one Granddad had instructed me on. There was a single-sized bed crammed against one wall, two bookshelves that were sagging under the weight of their contents along another, a scarred table that obviously served as a potion brewing station judging from the various labeled containers at one end, and a desk with a rickety looking chair.

"Nice," I commented and he snorted as the door closed behind us. "No, seriously."

"You really don't have to lie about it, Maggie. I'm well aware that I have no life," he said quietly. Then he gestured at the bed and took the desk chair before I could argue.

Annoying. Mom had said he was annoying too.

Sighing, I went to the bed and sat gingerly on the edge, folding my hands in my lap. I rocked slightly forward for a moment then blew out an exasperated breath. He looked at me like a man walking to his execution and I guess in a way he was.

His answers could breathe life into or swiftly murder whatever relationship we might have.

"Why'd you leave me?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that my voice cracked a bit. Mom was great, yeah, and so were Granddad and Uncle Thomas. The Mendozas were still the people I recalled as my parents but…my father was alive and in front of me.

I wanted to know why he and Susan Rodriguez had left me with them in the first place. Oh, I could guess given what I knew now but I wanted to hear it from _him_.

It took him a long moment to answer and when he did, it was with a question.

"Do you remember the temple?"

Memory assaulted me hard enough to make me jerk my head back. Half-recalled blood, fire, and death came back in one swift instant on the back of a leathery skinned monster. Then I remembered _him_ being there, recalled that face above me for the first time. Not in the cold with the leather duster he wore around me and a fire blazing for warmth, but in a Hell on earth that I hadn't understood the least until years later.

My body started shaking, vibrating so hard that it felt about to come apart, and I hugged my arms about my ribs in an attempt to hold everything together. "You," I managed to gasp out as I wrenched myself free of the bloodstained memory. "You were there."

He nodded and then told me the whole sordid tale. Even the moment on the top of that damned temple when he turned the Reds spell back on them by killing my mother.

My own _father_ had robbed me of any opportunity to meet my birth mother. That mere fact angered me beyond words…and terrified me to the core. He'd gone to lengths I couldn't even imagine to save me all those years ago.

And he hadn't even known I existed before then.

My father was _mad_.

The shaking slowly began to subside and I said shortly, "That still doesn't answer my question. Why'd you leave me?"

"I had – and still have – too many enemies," he answered. "Hell's bells, our family combined has too many enemies. You were taken back then so they could kill us all: me, your uncle, and your grandfather. Plus who knows how many others with a blood connection."

"Why?" I knew the answer despite having asked the question. I'd _seen_ why reflected in the eyes of those around us the day he'd come through a tear in reality to help save me from the Council.

_Fear_.

He smiled, one of those knowing twitches of the lip that says 'I know what you're thinking,' then leaned back in the desk chair. "Same reason Summer tried to kill me after all of that was over," he said airily, as if being thought dead wasn't a big deal. That made my shivers stop utterly and I rose with rage burning in my gut.

"Why didn't you _tell me_?" My voice was a deafening roar, almost a sound I didn't recognize, and I didn't stop there. "You could have told me who you were in that snowstorm instead of just disappearing like some ghost! Or come after helping at the Council and told me _why_ you saved me! I tried for _months_ to get Granddad, Mom, or Uncle to explain why you were there but they just brushed me off!"

A sudden thought came to me and I growled, "Were you _ever_ going to tell me? Or was I going to just spend my years thinking you were dead?"

Dark eyes met mine briefly then he sighed, tilting his head back to look at the hut's ceiling in contemplation. The fact that my anger seemed to just roll off of him only made me angrier and I was ready to start shouting again when he opened his mouth.

"Believe me, Maggie, I know how you're feeling right now. Ebenezar didn't let slip that he was my grandfather until only a few years before I knew you existed." He sighed as he straightened up and continued, "After we got you back, though, I understood why he did it. I didn't like it and I sure as hell would have liked to have known earlier, but I got it. He was the Blackstaff and he wanted to protect me from his enemies as I was gathering plenty of my own."

"Then why did he tell _me_?" I asked. Then I went back over what he'd just said and before my father could speak, said, "You told him to."

He nodded and I frowned before asking, "That night? After you took me back to the house?" When he nodded again in confirmation, I closed my eyes against hot tears that welled suddenly in my eyes. Mom and Granddad had _known_ he was alive.

Empty night, how much more of my life was a lie?

Turning away, I tried hard to get my emotions under control, to forget that everyone I cared about seemed to have been hiding important things from me for the longest time. The desk chair creaked and then leather-clad arms wrapped me from behind as he rested his head against mine. I trembled, trying to hold myself together, then he whispered in my ear.

"I'm sorry, Maggie."

Two words and my name. Just that and I fell apart.

When I was finally able to think again and blinked tears from my eyes, I found myself turned around in his arms with my head tucked under his chin. My fingers were clutching at his shirt and he was babbling honest reassurances as he ran a hand up and down my back. At my slight cough, he stopped and started to move away but I held onto him. "Don't," I breathed, my voice hoarse from crying. "Please."

He shifted close again and the hand started moving once more. It was a reassuring motion I associated with Mom from the first time I'd been sick and it felt…right…for him to be doing.

After a moment, he chuckled and said, "I really thought you'd storm out of here when I told you everything, not end up clinging to me for comfort. Not with Murph having raised you, kiddo." The arm he had wrapped around me then moved downward, bumping into the revolver we both seemed to have forgotten I'd pocketed, and he made a grumbling noise. "Then again, I suppose you could've shot me rather than storming out. That'd be more of a Murph thing."

That made me laugh and I shook my head before saying, "Mom told me to never shoot something unless it was trying to kill me."

I felt his head tilt and then his lips as he smiled into my hair. "I know you aren't very fond of any of us right now, Maggie, but we did all of this to try and keep you safe until you could protect yourself better."

"I _can_ protect myself pretty damn good."

"Don't get cocky, kiddo. That's what got me a bullet and no life in this hut."

My father's words sunk in hard and I nodded before asking the next important question after the ones I'd already asked.

"What do we do now?"

His arm squeezed around me tightly as he growled, "We wait here for reinforcements. Then we're going to go teach a couple of fairies that they shouldn't mess with my family – a point they seem to have forgotten the past couple of years."

I pushed away from him at that point, looking up in fear as a thought hit me. "But…you're the Winter Knight."

The smile he flashed down at me was utterly wolfish in response to that.

"It's my Queen's opinion that if I can't keep faeries from using my family against me, then I'm not worthy of being her Knight." At the look of shock I could feel spreading across my face, he winked. "Her exact words the day before your birthday."

"Which means –"

My father's wolfish smile grew wider as he answered, "Which means I've essentially got her permission to do whatever I have to in order to keep that from happening."

The memory of the temple and what he'd told me flared bright again. "Anything?" I breathed, fearing and quivering with anticipation at what they meant.

His hands came up to frame my face then and he met my eyes for a long moment that almost stretched into a soul gaze before his eyes darted away.

"I know what I did will never earn me a Father of the Year award but you're _my daughter_, Maggie. Best thing I ever helped put together in this world if you want my opinion. And I will _never_ let something hurt you if I can stop it."

Those words were proof of my thought earlier: he was _mad_. Utterly serious about throwing himself into a storm if it meant saving me. Completely mad. Bonkers. Out of his wit's end.

And, hell's bells, I believed every word of it.

His words, too, made that little girl in me who'd always longed for the parents she'd never known to grin and giggle, kicking her feet in glee. My dad was _alive_ and had already run headlong into Hell once to save me. The fact that he'd willingly do it again was…overpowering.

Smiling at him, I said, "Y'know…you might just earn that Father of the Year award yet."

He laughed at that and pulled me into a tight hug. Tucking my head against his shoulder, I closed my eyes and prayed with every ounce of myself that when this was over I wouldn't lose him again.


	8. Molly: 'Jeez, boss, you look like crap…'

"Molly! Get the door!"

"I can't get the door _and_ finish translating the scribbles you call notes, Dave," grumbled Molly as she threw her pen down onto her desk. Taking a deep breath before she reached the door, she put on a fake smile and readied the well-practiced greeting as she turned the doorknob. "Welcome to Winter Investigations, where we help the helpless! How can I –"

Then she realized who was standing there and stepped out of the office, hissing, "Harry, this is _Chicago_. What the hell are you doing in the city?" Then she looked him up and down without looking any closer at his face and added, "And jeez, boss, you look like crap."

"Molly," he said in a low voice and she went still. There was that slight _growl_ in his voice, the one that appeared when he was controlling his temper to avoid everything around him exploding. Even after so long she still remembered that tone and when she flicked her eyes up to his, she knew she was right.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Maggie," answered Harry and he looked away down the hall before drawing in a shuddering breath. "She's turning eighteen tomorrow and the Queen's revoking her protection."

Molly sucked in air at that, knowing full well what that meant without even having to ask why Mab had been protecting Maggie. It would have been one of Harry's stipulations to keep his daughter out of the hands of enemies via fear of the Winter Queen's wrath. Obviously Mab thought eighteen was the age that Maggie could defend herself at.

"Harry…you can't fight against Winter."

He flashed his teeth in a mockery of smile at that and said, "I can if I have the Queen's permission."

It took a moment for the words to hit and they rolled around Molly's head for a moment before she really realized what he was saying. When she did, her blood began to race at the dozens of implications. Winter against Winter. Knight against Fae. Knight against _Lady_ if Maeve got into the mix.

And knowing of the Winter Lady's penchant for taunting Harry, it was damn well guaranteed she'd be there.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked. It didn't matter what it was, didn't matter that it would be fighting Fae or that she barely knew Maggie. The man who'd saved her life was asking her for help.

She couldn't deny Harry that.

"Just be ready when someone calls," answered Harry. "I'm not sure who'll be going after her or when but I know they will eventually." His shoulders then sagged with relief, some of the tension draining from his face, and he murmured, "And thanks, Molls. I don't like pulling you into this but if things go bad, you're the only one that could get Maggie away safely."

Molly nodded slowly then said, "If it comes to that."

"If it comes to that," he repeated. Then Harry straightened and said, "Murph'll probably be the one to call you when things go down. After that –"

He stopped talking as her name was shouted from within the office then said, "I'll let you get back to work. Seems like your boss isn't the friendly type."

Molly laughed at that and reached out to lightly punch his shoulder. "I seem to have the habit of picking bosses like that," she joked, laughing again when he looked offended.

"I'm friendly!"

She scoffed and Harry looked hurt before he chuckled, shaking his head. Then he smiled – a real, honest if tired smile – and stepped forward to grab her in a short one-armed hug. "Thanks again, Molls."

"Bah," she said as she squeezed him around the waist before he pulled away, "you knew I wouldn't say

'no'." When he flinched, Molly reached up to grab his chin and forced him to look at her. "I wouldn't say 'no' because you're my friend, Harry. Even the Winter Knight gets to have friends."

He smiled at that, starting to say something but was cut off by another shout from inside. Molly growled and released him, turning around to yell, "Give me a minute, Dave!"

When she turned back, Harry was gone.

Staring at the spot he had been in, Molly quietly debated her sanity in helping him then ignored the question. Again, Harry had saved her life and had taught her what exactly it meant to have magic. She owed him.

Now she just had to convince Dave that she needed a few days off.


End file.
